Easter Fic
by Cerulea
Summary: This is just a fluffy little ficlet for the Holiday.


_This is just a little Destiel fluff for the holiday. _

* * *

Easter Day

Dean leaned easily in the doorway, content as could be. Which was terrifying to him - to be so happy. But he ignored that thought. Just for today.

Everything was different now. It had to be, they had someone else to look out for. Someone who needed them. He felt his lips pull up into a smile as he watched him look up at Castiel with his big hazel eyes, long brown lashes, mouth open, just listening to the angel. Not understanding, as Castiel was attempting to explain that it is the chemical compounds in the dye reacting with the vinegar that allows the color to bond with the egg shell... But he was listening, no doubt.

Little Jack always listened when Castiel spoke.

It was something about his voice. Even as a toddler, when they'd first found him, if Castiel spoke Jack's eyes would go right to him. They would scan slowly but determinedly until they found the source of that gravelly voice, and then the two would stare at each other.

Dean would never forget it - the first time it happened. That was the moment. It was the moment that changed everything. When Castiel couldn't be emotionless and distant and pragmatic anymore. Dean thinks, that was the moment Castiel finally understood what it was to be human. Even more so than their first kiss, or their first night together. Castiel didn't truly _get it_, until Jack got ahold of him.

Dean will always be thankful to the child for that.

Sam and Dean had found Jack, the son of two murdered gypsies, when they were working a case - warring covens. The gypsies (this group being a particularly magical one, old eastern european pagan magic) had unknowingly moved in on another coven's territory. And the territorial bitches had just... _slaughtered_ them. No warning. No mercy. The only one Sam and Dean got there in time to save, was Jack. His mother begged Dean to take him, with her last breath. She begged him to take her baby, raise him right, and teach him to embrace his family's magic. A dying mother's love for her son... what could Dean do? He promised.

And Dean never breaks a promise when it comes to family.

It was obvious to Sam that everything had changed in that one moment, when the tragically gorgeous, bloodied woman handed her only precious thing in this world over to Dean "My car is my longest relationship" Winchester and simply _trusted_ him to do right. Sam knew he would.

And Jack has been Dean's son ever since.

Sam spends almost as much time with him, but there is an unspoken understanding, that Jack belongs to and with Dean. And Sam was kind of awed, in that first day, of how well Dean took to fatherhood. He handled everything with a calmness and love that Sam could only describe as serenity. Within the first hours of having Jack with them in the motel, Sam could tell that Dean was suited for this.

As unrealistic as the idea of them caring for a child is.

Castiel was particularly perturbed upon discovering their predicament. He had tried to offer them opportunity to be rid of the baby, whilst knowing he would be safe. But Dean wouldn't hear of it.

Dean hadn't noticed that Cas had been avoiding looking at the child, but Sam had. And he could see the shift, the inevitable change in Castiel, when he finally allowed himself to look into the baby's eyes.

And he saw the way Dean swallowed nervously the first time Castiel held him, that fragile pink little bundle moving into the angel's steel-crushingly strong arms. Castiel looked down at him, and smiled; and Dean looked at the angel with an expression that Sam thinks to this day he's never seen on Dean before.

It was something deep and indescribably complex.

Sam remembers thinking, _if Jack can actually get the two of them to finally see eye to eye, he _must_ be magic_.

Now he's three. And Dean likes to watch Jack and Cas together.

Cas is loving, protective. Stern but affectionate simultaneously. Which Dean appreciates, because it lets him be the goofball from time to time. But he also likes encouraging Cas to let them indulge in these little human moments. Like coloring Easter eggs. Necessary? no. But somehow important. Dean likes watching Jack and Cas learn things together. He likes the lightness of Cas when his biggest concern is not cracking a purple egg's shell as he dips it again into the murky dye.

Dean especially enjoys explaining to Cas the ritual of hiding said eggs in the yard.

Cas, of course, being stood awkwardly in the middle of the grass waxing poetic about the scavenging of boiled, decorative poultry ovums not having anything to do with the resurrection of Christ, who he knows for a fact, never once enjoyed a boiled egg.

Dean places the eggs painstakingly, taking great care with his decisions - at the base of a tree, in a sprout of daffodils, beside the tires of the Impala. He can see Sam watching him, extremely amused, from inside the house, where he is watching Jack for him and Cas while they do this _Dad_ thing.

Dean glances down at the handful of eggs left in the basket. For a moment Dean is sad that his own father never offered them things like this. No Easter Bunny, no Santa Clause, no Tooth Fairy, no magical naive world outlook to start them off hopeful. He wants Jack to have that.

He can't imagine his own father not wanting that for him and Sam. Even Cas understands this...

When he looks up, Castiel is watching him, easily and with the ghost of a contented smile on his lips. They share a quiet moment before Castiel rescues Dean from having to deal with any unwanted emotion and gestures toward the house.

"Perhaps there," he points the base of the gutter that runs down the side of the house and opens up into the grass.

Dean smiles at him and heads over to it, "Cas, you got a knack for this."

Cas smiles shyly and looks down at the grass as he walks by Dean's side.

...

Maybe it won't always be like this. Maybe bringing a child into their life will open them up to the vulnerability and heartache of an un-healable loss. Maybe the world will end tomorrow.

But when Dean feels Cas discreetly squeeze his hand as Jack pulls the purple egg out of the grass by the gutter and shows it off first to his Uncle Sam and then waves it excitedly at Dean and Cas, he can't help but feel that this moment is worth it.


End file.
